I’ve
finally admitted it to myself: I’m not going to have a new book for
Halloween this year. This morning I gave up the October 21st
publication slot I’d reserved at Excessica (an author co-op where
you can schedule your own releases) so that someone else could use
it.
As
I noted in my blog yesterday, Halloween is special for me. It really
hurts to let it pass without a literary celebration, but what can I
do?
I
haven’t run out of ideas or anything. Far from it. I have two
longer paranormal works in progress, either of which would have been
appropriate for Halloween. However, my real world schedule has been
so hectic that I realized there was no way I could finish writing
either of them this month—not
to mention dealing with editing, cover art and so on.
In
the last six months, I’ve done five international business trips,
each averaging a week long. Now, I love traveling, even for work, but
this is too much of a good thing! Not only does each trip require a
lot preparation (and recovery time, in some cases), but I still have
to fulfill my normal job responsibilities. That means I’ve had to
squeeze four weeks work into three weeks, month after month.
Needless
to say, this hasn’t left me a lot of time to write.
I’ll
admit to feeling disappointed, even a bit discouraged. However, I
have to accept the things I can’t change. I have to adjust my
expectations. Last year I had sixteen releases, assuming you count
short stories in anthologies—twelve
if you’re only interested in single-author releases. This year so
far there have been four.
Sometimes
I feel like saying “What’s the use?” and giving up. I can’t
though. There are stories waiting to be written. And I have at least
a few fans eager to read them. My progress may be slow, but if I can
write even a thousand words in a week, I’ll eventually finish the
book.
So
I’ll post this blog, then get back to my WIP.
